The committee that’s been studying nitrate levels in the area’s ground water is planning to release a draft report in December.The first phase of the study has involved reviewing existing literature to determine whether water quality is an issue in the alluvial aquifers of the Upper Black Squirrel basin, said committee member Elaine Kleckner.Water for the Falcon area comes from the UBS aquifers.Kleckner, who also works for El Paso County’s community services department, said the study’s first phase does not include any new water sampling. Instead, the committee hired the Colorado Geological Survey to gather the data for review.The CGS found information on nitrate levels through 2000, she said.”When you look from decade to decade, there were times when the standard for nitrate was exceeded, but it varied from decade to decade,” Kleckner said. “We didn’t have one particular spot where there was a continuing problem.” The committee’s next step will be to review existing and future land use data to assess the relationship between land use and high nitrate levels.According to a study conducted in Oregon by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2007, nitrate forms when nitrogen in household waste water is exposed to oxygen in soils around and beneath on-site septic systems.The effect of elevated nitrate levels in ground water comes full circle when the household gets its drinking water from a nearby well.Drinking water with high nitrate levels reduces the ability of the body’s blood cells to carry oxygen. Hardest hit are infants and children, who get “blue-baby syndrome,” the USGS study reported.Developments with central waste-water treatment facilities face a different set of problems when releasing treated water into the environment.The Colorado Department of Health and Environment sets standards for waste-water treatment.Like many metropolitan districts, the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District’s waste-water treatment plant discharges treated water into the environment. Water discharged from water treatment plants must be cleaner than the water that is already in the stream, Bishop said.Now, the CDPHE is setting new standards for total phosphorous and total inorganic nitrogen.Bishop said the Woodmen Hills treatment plant can probably meet the state’s new phosphorous standard.”It will cost us about $250 per thousand gallons up to a million gallons for phosphorous removal. We can meet that,” he said.However, the new standard for inorganic nitrogen could be a challenge.”We can’t meet the standard they’re proposing for nitrogen because the technology to remove it is not available,” Bishop said.Along with other waste-water treatment operators, Bishop is asking the CDPHE to set a nitrogen standard in each basin instead of setting a single standard for the entire state.Other states, such as Florida and Minnesota, have tried that approach, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overrode them, he said.”I expect that to happen to us in Colorado, and then it’s going to be a huge issue on how we’re going to do it, especially if the technology is not available,” Bishop said.He said the Woodmen Hills waste-water treatment plant is operating under a discharge permit that expires at the end of May 2011.The CDPHE has such a long backlog of permits waiting to be issued that Bishop thinks Woodmen Hills will get an automatic two-year extension on its current permit, which would keep the current standards in place.However, the CDPHE could grant an extension and issue a new discharge permit the next month if their work load allows, he said.Under a new discharge permit, the district would be required to meet new standards for things like ammonia, and Bishop said they can’t meet them. However, the state would probably set up a five-year compliance schedule for the district, he added.The district has been operating under a CDPHE notice of violation and a cease-and-desist order that should be lifted when the district completes the installation of a liner in cell No. 3 in November, Bishop said.The CDPHE will determine whether any penalties will be applied. If there are penalties, the district and the state would negotiate.
